One thing I absolutely love about this franchise is how the characters include their respective dragons into literally every conversation both casual and serious. It's never just, "Where is Hiccup?" It's always, "Where are Hiccup and Toothless." It's never, "The ingredients are in your satchel." It's, "The ingredients are in Toothless' saddle bag." Not just, "How are you holding up?" but always, "How are you guys holding up?" It's not, "How about an impartial judge for the Thorsten challenge? For the love of Thor take me with you." Instead it is, "How about a couple of impartial judges for the Thoston challenge? For the love of Thor, take us with you."
In most other media that involve an animal best friend, this is usually absent or not displayed as thoughtfully, the animal is usually missed in discussion or not included in such dialogue pieces but Httyd never does that. Dragons are always treated and included as equal individuals instead of just pets and I love that.
i love how hiccup is a revolutionary genius in his world. inventing things that we in the modern world don't even have. like a flying suite, or a flame sword. or how he was able to recreate the dragon eye so perfectly and easily. but also he's just an uneducated viking. like he makes fun of tuffnut for believing the earth is round. and when gothi hypnotized fishlegs, he just accepted it.
I have this head cannon that Snotlout makes sure his friends are safe and ok in different ways, like…
When Stoick is mad at the riders, stepping in front of Hiccup to block him from Stoicks view because what if he’s just a bit more like Spitelout than he lets on.
Saying the food in the great hall is “so gross” and passing his plate over to Astrid, who’s been training too hard again and sometimes forgets to eat enough.
Making sure Fishlegs knows he’s appreciated by saying stuff like “Why do you even read, you already know everything!”
Walking Ruff and Tuff to the door when it’s curfew, just because they’re lonely in the house with a mother, quieter than she was before her husband was taken by dragons
Checking Gustav for bruises by patting him on the back, because what kind of parents sell their kid and don’t notice when they go missing? The kind he grew up with and he would do anything to help Gustav if he was in the same situation
Looking after his friends in ways so small they don’t even notice. Just in case.
There's one line in Race to the Edge, just one line, that made my respect for Snotlout spike. I don't remember the exact quote, but they were all under attack, and Tuffnut asked Snotlout why he was hiding out in their hut instead of his own,
And Snotlout's response was something along the lines of, "I was so busy reinforcing everyone els's huts, I forgot about my own!" And then cries out in fear from another hit of a catapult lol.
i could rant forever on how much i hate him and how much i dislike him as a villain and that viggo was, and always will be, the greatest HTTYD villain of all time.
Thing is, while Snotlout is vocal and loud when pulling the typical cousin shenanigans, Hiccup does them too but in a deviously silent way.
Like getting Snotlout to dip his tongue in night fury saliva or putting a lot more flammable gel on his coccoon than anybody else's or not even batting an eye at the other practically having a panic attack as he pairs him up with one of the most feared dragons based on aesthetic alone or appointing him the bait for smothering smokebreaths on Breakneck Bog.
They are both equally vicious when it comes to being cousins